The World in Spatial Terms1. How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and
technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial
perspective
2. How to use mental maps to organize information about people, places, and
environments in a spatial context
3. How to analyze the spatial organization of people, places, and
environments on earth’s surface

Places and Regions4. The physical and human characteristics of places
5. That people create regions to interpret earth’s complexity
6. How culture and experience influence people’s perceptions of places and
regions

Human Systems9. The characteristics, distribution, and migration of human populations
on earth’s surface
12. The processes, patterns, and functions of human settlement
13. How the forces of cooperation and conflict among people influence the
division and control of earth’s surface

The Uses of Geography17. How to apply geography to interpret the past
18. How to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future

Teacher
Background Material-
The first Africans arrived in the New World as slaves in 1518 in the
Caribbean. Over the next 250 hundred years it is estimated that as many as
twelve million Africans were brought to the New World. Although for the vast
majority of the slaves that were brought from Africa went to the Caribbean
and Brazil about 450,000 Africans were brought to the United States. Slaves
that arrived prior to the 1800s probably had an easier time escaping then
their descendants did. After the 1800’s federal and state laws made it much
more difficult for slaves to escape. Many slaves managed to escape from the
early plantations and went to live with local Native American tribes, passed
themselves off as free Blacks in the Northern states or escaped to French,
Spanish or English held Territory. The French, the Spanish and later the
English refused to return runaway slaves or to allow slave catchers to come
into their territory and recapture the slaves. Spain for example, was heavily
involved in the slave trade, yet they extended freedom to runaway slaves in
places like St. Augustine, Florida. They refused to return the slaves
believing that it would prevent further expansion into their territory. They
believed that Americans would be reluctant to move into any area where there
were so many runaway slaves. The presence of these slaves might encourage
others to runaway. The problem of Spanish Florida was eventually solved when
Andrew Jackson invaded Florida and claimed it for the United States. Slaves
continued to runaway to Texas, Canada and the Caribbean until the Civil War.

Another
option for runaway slaves was to create a “maroon” society in areas that were
uninhabited and difficult for slave catchers or soldiers to penetrate. Some
of these societies created permanent settlements and they even planted
crops. Most of these settlements were transitory. Most “maroon” societies
were eventually eliminated as American’s expanded westward.

Slavery
was first formalized as an institution in Maryland in 1663. Slavery existed
in all of the colonies in the early years, but most of the Northern colonies
eliminated slavery after the American Revolution through gradual
emancipation. Even with emancipation, slaves could still be found in New
Jersey as late as 1850.

Slavery in
the South grew dramatically after the invention of the cotton gin in 1703.
Slavery fueled an economic boom that lasted until the Civil War and sharply
divided the United States. The North in many ways was just as dependent on
Slavery as the South. Many Northerners feared ending slavery, because slaves
might migrate North and take away jobs from whites.

Militias
were created to help maintain slavery in the South by capturing and returning
fugitive slaves. Runaway slaves proved to be a difficult and expensive
problem for slaveholders. There were serious consequences for both the
runaway slave and anyone who helped them. Runaway slaves were subject to
beatings, mutilations, brandings, sale to the West Indies and even death.
Consequences for those who helped them include fines and imprisonment.

Abolitionist societies began very soon after the formation of the slave
trade. These organizations grew steadily and were helped by the ideas of the
Enlightenment and the Great Awakening. Both of these movements emphasized
the dignity and worth of the individual and undermined the whole notion of
slavery. In the beginning most abolitionists promoted the idea of gradual
emancipation of the slaves with compensation to the owners. Many believed
that slave owners could be persuaded to release their slaves on moral
grounds. Over time the inability of moral persuasion split the Abolitionist
movement into two groups one that advocated a gradual end of slavery and
another that wanted the immediate unconditional emancipation of all slaves.
Many in the second group were even willing to use violence to achieve their
ends. Both groups supported the Underground Railroad.

The
Underground Railroad was a term used to describe the formal and informal
system set up to help runaway slaves. Most runaway slaves came from the
border states of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Virginia, although there
are a few stories of daring escapes from as far away as Georgia and South
Carolina. The Underground Railroad began as soon as the first slave escaped
from his master. George Washington complained in 1786 that he had a
difficult time capturing a fugitive slave who had hid out with people in the
community and had aided him in his escape.

Assistance
for slave owners who wanted to recapture their runaway slaves first came in
the form of The Fugitive Slave Law of 1793. Under this law a slave owner
could claim that any black man or women was a slave and after making an oral
statement in front of a magistrate that person would be returned to a state
of bondage. Slaves were unable to say anything in their own defense. As
slavery became more important to the Southern economy many Southern states
passed even harsher laws. Many states allowed any white man to stop a black
man and demand to see his traveling papers. If the white man was not
satisfied that the papers were authentic the black man could be jailed until
his identity was discovered.

Despite
these laws and the harsh punishments that often accompanied them, some slaves
created ingenious methods for obtaining their freedom. Henry Brown, a slave
from Virginia, packed himself in a large wooden box and had himself shipped
to Philadelphia.

Most
runaway slaves however need the assistance of others to make their way to
freedom. The lose coalition of people who helped runaway slaves became known
as the Underground Railroad. Some of the members of the Underground Railroad
like Harriet Tubman actually traveled into the South to free slaves. Such
actions were very dangerous and most members of the Underground Railroad
chose to assist slaves by giving them food and shelter to help them on their
way. Sometimes a runaway slave would walk the entire way to freedom. More
often then not they used some method of transportation. Some runaway slaves
used ferries and ships, while others used trains or wagons. The vast
majority of runaway slaves were young men who had the stamina to manage the
harsh journey. Other slaves often refused to leave if it meant abandoning
wives and children.

Most
members of the underground railroad were free blacks, religious groups such
as the Quakers or sympathetic whites. They included simple farmers,
merchants, ship captains, ministers, and even a porter in the U.S. Supreme
Court.

The best
organized stations were in the North. Northern towns sometimes formed
vigilance committees that organized the transportation and safe passage of
runaway slaves to other Northern States and Canada. These committees were
often made up of both Blacks and Whites and in many cases they were under the
control of Blacks. These committees along with numerous individuals,
religious groups and abolitionists societies made up what we now call the
Underground Railroad

After the
runaway slaves arrived at their final destination, they usually became part
of the community or set up separate communities of their own. Some stayed in
Northern cities while others left for Canada. It is estimated that over
100,000 slaves passed through the Underground Railroad and made it to freedom

Material to
be placed in envelopes.

Positive
Outcomes.

1.You’re in luck, a
Quaker family is willing to smuggle you to the next town. They will put you
in their wagon and hide you in a secret compartment under several bags of
grain. The space is cramp, but your happy to be riding. They leave very
early in the morning hoping not to be stopped by local militias. Although
they meet several people along the way no one suspects that you are hidden in
the wagon. You make it to the next town.

2.While traveling a
slave catcher has caught sight of you and sent his dogs after you. Lucky for
you, you carried some onions with you. You used the onions to scrub your
feet, which threw the dogs off your sent. You passed through several streams
as well for good luck. The dogs never find you again and you proceed to the
next town.

3.While you were
hiding in the woods near the town you spot a young black women. You call out
to her and ask for help. After looking around for strangers, she tells you
to come to the last house on the right after the sun goes down. There will
be a candle in the window. You do as she instructed and the Black family that
lives there agrees to hide you for a few days. You are very grateful for
their help since you are very tired and out of food. They provide you with a
safe place to stay and some food. After a few days they send you on your way
to the next town.

4.At the next town you
use a set of forged papers given to you at your last stop. These papers show
that you are a freed slave and that you live in the next town. Although you
are stopped by the local authorities, the papers fool them and you are sent
on your way to the next town.

5.In this town you run
into a hostile white family. They verbally abuse you and your frightened
that they will turn you in to the local authorities. They tell you that they
don’t support slavery, but that they don’t like blacks living near them.
They are not as helpful as the other families that you have met, but at least
they don’t turn you in. You go on your way to the next town.

6.In this town your luck runs out. You are captured by a local
sheriff. He puts you in jail and you sit there for two days. The
story of your capture quickly spreads though out the community and a local
abolitionist group hears of your situation and attempts to raise enough money
to pay for your bond. It takes two weeks, but they manage to raise
enough money to get you out of jail. They then help you escape and send
you on to the next town.

7. In this town you are
spotted by a white woman.

She seems very
angry with you and rants and raves about blacks and slaves. She demands that
you keep your eyes down and tell you that she doesn’t want you to be able to
identify her. You think that she is going to turn you into the authorities,
but instead she keeps complaining about her husband. Eventually, you figure
out what she is talking about. It seems that her husband has given large
amounts of money to the American Colonization Society. She furious that he
has done this and is afraid that if he sees you he would spend what’s left of
their money sending you back to Africa. So rather than let her husband spot
you, she gives you a little food and directions to the next town. She warns
you that if she sees you in this town again, she will turn you into the slave
catchers herself.

8.You are captured by
a group of local farmers. They quickly take you to the local jail. Although
they feed you at the jail and generally treat you fairly, you are sure that
they are going to send you back to the South. Two weeks after your capture
they take you to the local courthouse and put you in front of a local judge.
You are not allowed to speak in your defense or have anyone represent you.
From the back of the courtroom a white man approaches and asks the judge if
he can speak in your defense. You have never met the man, but he tells the
court that you are a free black living in the next town and that he has known
you for years. The judge believes him and sets you free. You find out later
that the judge was an abolitionist and often called in witnesses in order to
have an excuse to free captured slaves. You proceed on to the next town.

9.You are caught by a
local sheriff while you are in the woods. You are more than a days ride from
the nearest town so the sheriff decides to tie you up for the night and take
you to jail on the following day. After he ties you to a tree, the sheriff
proceeds to get drunk and pass out. The sheriff had done a poor job of tying
you up and you manage to untie your bonds and escape. You’re pretty sure
that the sheriff will sleep to morning and by that time you will be long
gone. You proceed to the next town.

10. Once again you hook
up with the Underground Railroad. This time it is a local banker who helps
you out. He hides you out in his house until your ready to make the final
leg of your journey. He gives you enough food, clothes and money to make it
to Canada. You’re Free.

Negative Outcomes

1.You
are hungry and decide to steal some eggs from a local farmer. While you are
in the hen house he captures you. He then summons the local sheriff, who
puts you in jail. You are quickly tried and found to be a runaway slave. A
local slave catcher claims you and you put in chains for the trip back to
Kentucky.

2.You are spotted on
the road by a member of the local state militia. He quickly calls up other
members of the militia who are in the neighboring woods. They had been
looking for runaway slaves. You panic and run. He shoots you in the leg and
you are captured. Your wound is treated and the group turns you over to a
slave catcher and you are taken back to Kentucky.

3.You catch pneumonia
and die alone in the woods.

4.A homeless man spots
you in the woods. He follows you for several days. Each time that you think
that you eluded him you see him again. Finally, he surprises you at a bend
in the river and captures you. He is very angry and tells you that he used
to be a carpenter in South Carolina, but that he lost his job when the local
builder decided to hire slaves to do his job, because slaves work for less
money. He was unable to find another job and was forced to bring his family
out to Indiana to look for work, where there would be no competition from
slaves. He decides to sell you to illegal slave traders in the next town and
you are forced to go back to Kentucky.

5.A young boy spots
you and agrees to help you if you hide in a barn on his daddy’s farm. You
agree hoping that his father will help. The boy tells his father, but the
father panics. His neighbor had just been caught adding a runaway slave.
The neighbor was fined over $500.00 and had to spend several weeks in jail.
The father contacts the local authorities and they capture you. You are sent
back to Kentucky.

6.A local Quaker
family agreed to hide you a secret compartment in their cellar. The local
slave catchers obtained a warrant and searched the house. You are discovered
and both you and the Quakers are put in jail. You are sent back to Kentucky
and the Quakers are put on trial for helping you. They are sentenced to 1
year in prison.

7.While you are in the
woods you stumble over a tree branch and fall down a ravine. You managed to
crawl up to the top of the ravine, but realize that you have broken your
leg. You crawl to a nearby road hoping that a friendly face will help you.
A local farmer does pick you up, but turns you into the sheriff. You leg is
fixed up, but your sent back to Kentucky.

8.This time your luck
runs out. A group of slave catchers from Kentucky spot you and hunt you
down. They are on horseback and it doesn’t take long before you are
captured. They don’t even bother with a trial and take you directly back to
Kentucky.

9.In this town you are
directed by a friendly farmer to go to a local minister’s house. Hoping to
find another conductor on the underground railroad, you use a secret knock on
the back door. Instead of helping you the minister turns you in to the local
authorities. They pay him ten dollars for your capture. You are sent back
to Kentucky.

10. Your out of food
and haven’t had any sleep for three nights. Slave catchers have been hot on
your trail and you attempt to cross a flooded river. You are too tired to go
on and drown.

*Purpose of
Materials

Materials
needed:

Indiana
maps- It would be more accurate to use historical Indiana maps.
If these are not available, Indiana road maps, which can be easily
obtained from the Indiana Department of Transportation, will work
just fine. Any detailed road map that contains the cities listed
will do. Remind the students that many of the cities on the map
did not exist in 1850. You need one map for each pair of students.

Yarn- You
need a small ball of yarn for each pair of students. They should
have enough yarn to stretch across the state of Indiana.

Tape or
tacks- Students will be required to attach the yarn to the map.
Scotch tape can be used but may distort maps after repeated uses.
Tacks can be used if maps are placed on cardboard. Repeated use
of tacks may also distort the maps.

Background
Material – See above. You need one copy for each pair.

Envelopes-
10 large envelopes and 20 small ones for each pair. Make sure that
the large envelopes are big enough to contain 2 of the smaller envelopes.

Scissors-
one pair per group to cut the yarn

Student copies of material- See above. You need one
copy for each pair.

Help Cards- You will need 3 cards with the word HELP
on them for each pair of students.

Procedures

Before
class begins run off one copy of the positive outcomes, one copy
of the negative outcomes and one copy of the background information
for each group of students in the class. Then cut up the outcomes
and place them in one of the smaller envelopes. Place one positive
and one negative outcome envelope in a larger envelope. It doesn’t
matter which out come you put in the envelope as long as there is
one positive one and one negative one with the exception of number
ten. Make sure that the number 10 positive out come and the number
10 negative outcome are in the last envelope and write 10. Auburn
on it. After you have completed the last envelope, write the following
names on the other nine envelopes. Make sure you include the numbers
as well.

1. Jeffersonville

2. Madison

3. Quakertown

4. Greensburg

5. Richmond

6. Fountain
City

7. Marion

8. Huntington

9. Fort
Wayne

Seal each of
the envelopes so that students will not be tempted to cheat if they did not
receive a positive outcome.

Preparation-
Before you begin lesson, have students visit the websites on the Underground
Railroad in Indiana. Have them familiarize themselves with the experiences
of slaves that escaped their bondage. Stories about Harriet Tubman, “Box”
Brown, Sojourner Truth, Fredrick Douglas, William and Ellen Craft and others
will help them to imagine what life would be like to be a runaway slave.
Have the students brainstorm about what it would be like to be a runaway
slave and possible ways that a slave could escape. Remind them that it would
have been much more difficult for a slave from Georgia to escape to Canada
than it would be a slave from Kentucky. Ask them what types of skills would
a slave need in order to escape and elude his captors. Explore with them
what factors might prompt a person to escape and what factors might force a
person to stay a slave.

After you
have reviewed material on the Underground railroad, divide the class into
groups of two. You can also use larger groups of have the students work as
individuals depending on the type of class that you have.

Give each
student a Indiana map, a pair of scissors, a ball of yarn, tacks or scotch
tape, three help cards and the ten prepared envelopes with Indiana cities
written on them.

Starting
at Jeffersonville, have the students open only one of the smaller envelopes
inside the envelope marked Jeffersonville. If the outcome is positive have
the students tape a piece of yarn to place on the map where Jeffersonville to
the name of the town on the next envelope which is Madison. If the outcome
in the envelope is negative the student can put a help card in the envelope
and proceed on to the next city. Remind the students that they only have
three helps during the game. Have the students continue in the same manner
until all of the students either make it to Freedom, die or are sent back to
Kentucky. Review their work.

*Teaching
Strategies

1.Research- Have
students do research on the Internet and through other sources for material
on the Underground Railroad.

2.Brainstorm- Have
students come up with ideas about how it would feel to be a runaway slave.

3.Work in pairs- Have
the students develop cooperative learning skills by working in pairs.

4.Develop map skills-
Students become more familiar with the map of Indiana by using it during the
game.

5.Creative writing
skills- Students will be able to practice their writing skills in their
narrative of their trip on the Underground Railroad.

6. Speaking
skills- Students will be able to practice their speaking skills when they
present their trip to the class.

*Assessments
(key questions to simulate critical thinking)

1.Review the students
map work. Make sure that they followed the instructions carefully and linked
the cities on the Underground Railroad to one another in the proper order.

2. Have the
students write a short story about their trip on the Underground Railroad in
Indiana. Have them include the cities were they traveled and their
experiences along the way. Encourage them to embellish on the material and
make up their own stories, but do not allow them to change the outcome at
each stop. Have them give the participants in the stories names and have
them describe the physical environment around them. Have them then make up a
story about what happened to them after they left Indiana. If they were
captured did they try to escape again? If they made it to Canada were they
able to make a home for themselves? Evaluate their answers on the basis of
creativity, effort and historical accuracy.

3. Have the students
present their trip to the class. Have them explain what happen to them on
the trip where they had to use their help cards and where they ended up.
Have them tell the story in first person and give them higher marks for more
detailed stories.

Adaptations
and/or Extensions

1.Students can expand
this lesson by researching individuals or groups you assisted runaways on the
Underground Railroad. Students can write biographies of these individuals or
groups.

2.Students can present
first person accounts of individuals involved in the Underground Railroad by
dressing up as the individuals and telling their story to the class.

3.Students can create
larger maps of the Underground Railroad and include neighboring states or
even the entire country.

4.Students can make
posters about the groups involved in the Underground Railroad and hang them
up in the classroom.

5.Students can
research other sites along the Underground railroad in Indiana and present
alternative routes to Canada. They could create maps showing these alternate
routes.

6.Student’s can
research laws about slavery in Indiana and show how these laws developed in
response to events that were occurring across the nation.

7.Students can
research the role of slave owners in the formation of the State of Indiana
and how they tried to make Indiana a slave state.

8.Students can research
Black communities in Indiana and how the local and state governments treated
Blacks.

9.Students can
research Article 13 of the 1851 Indiana Constitution and how it affected
Blacks who lived in Indiana and the runaway slaves who passed through here.